GONZALES,
Calif.  About a decade ago, Jon Fanoe
started noticing something as he walked
down the long driveway leading away from
the Salinas Valley farm that bears his
familys name.

The houses across
the way were getting closer, he said.
It was a weird feeling to look out
where there had been nothing but fields
of crops and see the town creeping
closer.

Fanoe and his family
have taken steps to ensure that their
298-acre portion of the "Salad Bowl of
the World" will remain in agriculture
rather than become part of a
subdivision. They have worked with the
Monterey County Agricultural and
Historical Land Conservancy, Inc., to
create an agricultural conservation
easement on their property. Using grants
totaling about $1.5 million from the
Department of Conservations California
Farmland Conservancy Program and the
Packard Foundation, the MCAHLC purchased
the development rights to Fanoe Farm.
The property owners retain control of
the property, but the non-agricultural
development potential has been
permanently extinguished.

The Fanoe Farm is
located about an eighth of a mile north
of the Gonzales city limits, just a
half-mile northeast of Highway 101. The
property includes some of the worlds
most highly productive farmland due to
its prime soils and location in an area
with a year-round growing season.

Agriculture
represents 40 percent of Monterey
Countys total economy and the areas
prime farmland produces 10 percent of
California farm income on only 2.5
percent of Californias farmland. But
there is significant development
pressure in the Salinas Valley as
workers from the Silicon Valley and Bay
Area seek affordable housing.

"The Fanoe family
obviously recognizes the importance of
agriculture and has made a commitment to
preserving some of the worlds finest
farmland, said Darryl Young, Director
of the California Department of
Conservation. We salute them for not
only making this decision, but also for
setting an example that other
agricultural landowners in the county
and state can follow.

The Monterey County
Agricultural and Historical Land
Conservancy, founded in 1984, has
completed 23 projects that protect
approximately 8,200 acres of
agricultural properties in cooperation
with state, county and federal programs,
private foundations, and the American
Farmland Trust.

Our goal is to help
direct the inevitable growth in the
Salinas Valley away from the prime
farmland as much as possible, said
MCAHLC spokesman Sherwood Darington.
Our job is made easier by the fact that
there is such a high level of commitment
to protecting the land both among local
property owners and in state
government.

Jon Fanoe says he
isnt just protecting quality farmland,
but also a way of life. In the late
1800s, three brothers from Denmark
settled in the Salinas Valley. Fanoe
family members worked the farm until
Jons father, Henry E. Fanoe, died in
1969. None of Henrys seven children,
raised on the farm, opted to work the
land, but none wanted to see it paved
over, either.

Theres a lot of
legacy there  thats why it was
difficult to cut it loose, Jon Fanoe
said. When we talked about it, a big
part of our decision was that my father
would have wanted to see the land stay
in row crops. Our family was there a
long time, and we didnt want to see it
become the `Fanoe Meadows housing
development.

California's
agricultural production totaled more
than $29 billion in 2000; Monterey
County's total was $2.9 billion,
surpassed in the state only by Fresno
and Tulare counties. But California's
population of about 35 million is
expected to grow to nearly 50 million by
2025, and many acres of farmland are
being developed to accommodate that
growth. According to DOC's Farmland
Mapping and Monitoring Program, nearly
43,000 acres of agricultural land -- an
area about the size of the city of
Modesto -- was urbanized between 1996
and 1998.

Its important to
anticipate the needs of both a growing
population and the traditional
agricultural economy, DOC Director
Young said. The California Farmland
Conservancy Program offers a way to help
balance the needs of both sides by
creating a partnership between
landowners, land trusts and government
agencies."

The California
Farmland Conservancy Program,
administered by DOCs Division of Land
Resource Protection, is designed to
ensure that the state's most valuable
farmland will not be developed. Through
the program, local governments and
non-profit organizations can receive
grants to purchase development rights
from willing landowners, thus creating
permanent conservation. CFCP funds
remain for new grant proposals.
Landowners and trusts are encouraged to
contact the Department of Conservation/Division
of Land Resource Protection for
information on the program and potential
grant funding.

Through DOCs
Division of Land Resource Protection,
the state also offers programs  the
Williamson Act and Farmland Security
Zones -- that provide financial
incentives to keep land in agricultural
use for periods of 10 and 20 years.

In addition to
supporting land conservation, the
Department of Conservation administers
the state's beverage container recycling
program; regulates oil, gas and
geothermal wells in the state; studies
and maps earthquakes, landslides and
mineral resources; and ensures
reclamation of mined lands.